Aisha Sembhi
BBC Verify Live video journalist

We're closing BBC Verify Live now - here's a roundup of what our verification and fact-check teams brought you on our main stories today:

The White House shared an AI-manipulated image of a woman being arrested, describing it as a "meme." We looked back on previous times of the Trump administration has used AI-generated images and spoke to experts to get their insight into the implications of what has been called “deceptive content.”

Keep an eye out for our video report on that story which will be published on the BBC News Instagram and TikTok accounts later today.

We also took you behind-the-scenes of our latest investigation, which revealed dozens of Russian "shadow fleet" tankers had passed through the English Channel. Our reporter Kayleen Devlin talked us through how she identified and tracked the 42 vessels using open-source information.

Thanks for joining us this week - BBC Verify Live will be back again on Monday morning.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

We’ve just heard from a digital ethics expert who gave us his thoughts after the White House posted an AI-edited image on X of a woman arrested at an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Minnesota.

The White House manipulated a photo of lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong to make it look like she was crying.

“I would imagine most citizens expect government accounts to be trustworthy sources more than meme accounts,” Alex Krasodomski of the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House told us.

When we asked the White House to comment on why it edited a genuine photo of Armstrong’s arrest, they directed us to a post by deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr. It said: “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.”

"While memes are an integral part of modern politics, describing the manipulated photo of Nekima Levy as such feels a stretch,” Krasodomski said.

“Sharing a believable but manipulated image risks both altering the narrative around the arrest and is likely red meat to the activist's political opponents,” he added.

Shruti Menon
BBC Verify senior journalist, reporting from Delhi

Image source, X

Snowfall has been dwindling in recent years in India’s Himalayan states.

But several videos we have verified show deep snow has blanketed tourist towns in Himachal Pradesh, India-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.

The India Meteorological Department has recorded up to 46cm (18in) of snow in the past 24 hours in parts of Kashmir and as much as 15cm (6in) in areas of Himachal Pradesh.

While snow is a feature of the winter months in the mountainous western Himalayas according to the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, external (IIRS) the region has “received very less snowfall for the winter of 2025-26”.

However, the IIRS adds that since the start of this month there has been “a gradual transition towards normal snow conditions”.

In Himachal Pradesh, footage from Shimla’s Ridge shows heavy snow covering iconic buildings and tree-lined squares.

Videos from Kashmir, including from Srinagar airport, capture thick snow settling on rooftops, vegetation and roads.

Authorities have reported ongoing snow clearance operations on key roads and in popular destinations.

Aisha Sembhi
BBC Verify Live video journalist

BBC Verify’s latest investigation has shown that dozens of Russian "shadow fleet" oil tankers have passed through the English Channel this month despite a pledge by the UK government to take “assertive” action against them.

We regularly track vessels that are broadcasting their position using websites like MarineTraffic. But what happens when vessels falsify their locations?

BBC Verify's Kayleen Devlin talked us through how she tracked down the 42 shadow fleet tankers we found during our investigation.

Jake Horton
BBC Verify journalist

After the White House shared an AI-manipulated image on their X account an expert has told BBC Verify it was “not the first time” the Trump administration had used artificial intelligence in its public communications.

US-based media institute, Poynter, external,, external published a report in October, external which found the White House X account has published at least 14 posts involving AI since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

These include:

• a magazine cover of Trump wearing a crown
• a cartoon depicting an immigration arrest
• Trump dressed as a Jedi

So far this year, we’ve also found at least another 11 posts on the White House’s X account that feature AI or edited images, including this one of Trump in front of the White House surrounded by eagles and dollar bills:

However, all of these examples are more obviously AI-generated compared with the latest post which has manipulated a genuine photo of an arrested woman to make it appear as if she was crying.

Dozens of AI-generated images and videos have also been posted by Trump on the Truth Social platform that he owns.

Tamara Kovacevic and Rob England
BBC Verify

Downing Street has said comments by US President Donald Trump - that Nato troops stayed "a little off the front lines" during the war in Afghanistan - were “wrong”.

Following the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, the US invoked Nato’s Article 5 - which treats an attack on one member as an attack against them all - and launched military action in Afghanistan.

A total of 51 countries - both Nato and non-Nato - took part in the conflict that followed, external.

Among Nato nations that fought in Afghanistan, 24 suffered casualties according to icasualities, external, a website that has tracked deaths in the war from 2001 to 2021, when troops were withdrawn.

Over this period, the US suffered the highest number of deaths overall – 2,465 - followed by the UK with 457, external and Canada with 158.

However, if you express Nato deaths in Afghanistan in proportion to these countries’ populations, the US had 7.9 deaths per million, closely followed by Denmark with 7.7, the UK with 7.2 and Estonia with 6.7.

Peter Mwai
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, X

We have verified a video circulating online showing a reported suicide attack on a temporary Nigerian army camp.

The attack has been linked to the Islamic State group in northern Nigeria’s Borno State. In the video, filmed in a forested area, we see troops, vehicles and tanks.

One of the soldiers shouts to the others to “observe”. Another man, possibly the person filming, repeats the same command and later says he can “see some guys”.

Moments later, we see an explosion in the distance and later a bigger one closer to the person filming who shouts “suicide bomber” at least six times.

The video has crucial details watermarked on to it including the date, time and the co-ordinates, which meant we could identify the specific location on Google Earth.

We have matched the trees we see in the video to satellite imagery.Nasa’s satellite-based fire-sensing platform FIRMS captured several heat signatures in the area on the same day, which offers further corroboration.

The Nigerian army, which is engaged in a military campaign against the militants, confirmed the incident, external and said a vehicle with explosives had breached army positions.

Several soldiers and at least 20 militants were killed.

Kayleen Devlin and Barbara Metzler
BBC Verify

BBC Verify has been investigating how many Russian “shadow fleet” oil tankers have passed through the English Channel this month after the UK government said it had identified a legal way to intercept them.

Estimates vary, but the shadow fleet refers to hundreds of tankers that use deceptive practices like concealing their origin or ownership to transport sanctioned oil from countries including Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

The UK has sanctioned more than 500 Russia-linked shadow fleet tankers. Between 11 and 22 January, we tracked 42 UK-sanctioned vessels transiting the English Channel, many carrying Russian crude oil.

We identified these ships using MarineTraffic then verified some of their movements with satellite imagery.Alongside this, we examined a US-sanctioned tanker described as “the darkest of the dark fleet”, which sailed through UK waters earlier in January under a false identity before being turned away by German authorities.

German federal police told us the vessel - operating as Arcusat but identified as the sanctioned Tia - is under active investigation.

• You can read our full investigation here

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

Following Jared Kushner’s presentation at Davos on the US plans for the redevelopment of the Gaza Strip, we spoke to experts in urban planning to get their assessments.

Michael Batty, emeritus Bartlett professor of planning at University College London, said Kushner’s plan is “simply not possible”.

“To assemble the equipment to remove the present rubble in Gaza and to then organise the Strip into zones of housing is not easy - simply to produce a workable plan is hard and usually takes years," he told BBC Verify.

Image source, Reuters

During his presentation Kushner claimed that building one of the plan’s proposed cities - New Rafah - could take as little as two or three years.

Tim Dixon, emeritus professor at the School of the Built Environment at the University of Reading, said that time-frame “is not a realistic ambition“.

“For comparison,” he said, “in China, where state intervention is the norm and skilled labour is readily available… timeframes of at least five to 10 years apply for many similar-sized new cities, with full development taking up to 20 years.”

Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Board of Peace

A map of “New Gaza” was presented by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, outlining the US vision for the future of the Strip.

The map shows a buffer zone of about 1km encircling Gaza. This area, which has already been cleared of buildings and is currently held by the Israeli military, would reduce Gaza’s overall size by about a fifth.

The plan includes eight residential zones - four in the south, two in central Gaza, and two in the north.The southern residential zones don’t quite correspond with the current cities of Rafah or Khan Younis but given both are now mostly in ruins any redevelopment would essentially start from scratch.

The towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north, which have also been destroyed by Israel, no longer exist on the “New Gaza” map.

The plan also shows a much larger port, relocated from Gaza City where it is now, to the south west corner of the Strip. This would be directly accessible by Israel via the existing buffer zone in the border area between Egypt and Gaza, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist

An image of a woman arrested by US authorities and shared by the White House, external has been edited using artificial intelligence, experts have told BBC Verify.

The AI-manipulated image was shared about 30 minutes after the original was posted by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, external.

In the original picture posted by Noem the woman appears to be expressionless but in the later, AI-manipulated image, she is shown to be crying. The White House’s post on X has now gathered almost five million views.

Hany Farid, a computer science professor at the University of California and founder of GetReal Security, told BBC Verify it was “not the first time the White House has shared AI-manipulated or AI-generated content”.

The woman in the picture, Nekima Levy Armstrong, was arrested for allegedly organising a demonstration that disrupted a church service in Minnesota last Sunday, external where a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor.

When we asked the White House to comment on the image they directed us to an X post by deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr.

“Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Dorr wrote, external.

Farid said the White House’s use of AI-generated content is “troubling on several levels”.

“Not only are they sharing deceptive content, they are making it increasingly more difficult for the public to trust anything they share with us.”

Rob Corp
BBC Verify Live editor

Good morning.

The White House has defended using artificial intelligence to manipulate a picture of a woman arrested by US agents. The picture shared on its X feed shows Nekima Levy Armstrong crying - but in the original she appears stoney-faced. We’re looking to get expert comment on the Trump administration’s regular use of AI images in its political messaging.

A BBC Verify investigation has found that dozens of sanctioned oil tankers have sailed through the English Channel this month despite the UK government being told it can legally detain the vessels. You can read the full story here and later we’ll explain how we identified and tracked the ships.

Elsewhere, we’re fact-checking US President Donald Trump’s claim that Nato troops were deployed “a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan. Our data team is breaking down the figures on how many troops died from the countries that contributed forces to the US-led war.

If you’ve seen a story, claim, video or image that you think BBC Verify could investigate then get in touch with us here.